Safe barbecuing

Here you’ll find tips for enjoying your barbecue without any danger. After all, not everyone has a firefighter at home.

A stable surface is recommended, for example, as are an apron and gloves to protect you from sparks and spitting fat. Keep children and animals well away from your barbecue. Alcohol is also a no-go. And firelighters are a better choice than lighter fluid.

Because things can go badly wrong very quickly, as Evi’s story shows. On 21 May 2008, she and her dad were burned while barbecuing. She was 17 at the time. After the accident, she spent a whole year in the ZNA Stuivenberg burns centre. When she was finally allowed home, she was only at the start of a long rehabilitation.

I feel at ease at Oscare; every visit feels a little like coming home.

Evi Brosius

Results of our summer survey

In March, we launched our survey on a fire-safe summer. Here are some of the results:

25% use their barbecue every week in summer.
72% of barbecues run on charcoal.
1 in 3 don’t put their barbecue on a stable surface.
75% use a chimney starter and/or firelighters.
28% have no extinguishing equipment to hand while barbecuing.
68% have a garden hose but don’t keep it nearby.

What can you do to prevent fires and burns?

But sometimes things do go wrong!

Barbecue not properly put out causes fierce fire: home declared uninhabitable

2020 – This afternoon, a fire broke out in a garage in Jozef Verbertstraat in Mechelen-Zuid. A barbecue that had not been properly put out had caught fire. The garage was badly damaged and the house was declared uninhabitable. Nobody was injured. Source: HLN

2022 – Last weekend in Menen showed once again that using accelerants on a barbecue is a very bad idea. A man was seriously burned and is now recovering in the burns centre in Neder-Over-Heembeek. Source: HLN

2022 – Barbecue tips over and sets bushes ablaze in Landen. A convivial barbecue in Keibergstraat in Landen went wrong on Friday evening. Source: HLN

What can you do yourself?

If a fire does flare up in your barbecue, you can first try to put it out yourself with the extinguishing equipment you set out nearby. If you can’t put it out, call the emergency number 112.

If someone does get burned, cool the burn for 20 minutes under gently running lukewarm water. If there’s no water, you can use a fire blanket or put out the flames by rolling on the ground. Don’t put anything on the burn. Contact your GP for a minor burn, or the emergency services (emergency number 112) for a serious burn.

Want to know more about burns and what happens afterwards? Read all about it.